


Three Little Words

by TriscuitsandSoup



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Drabble, First Kiss, Fluff, Love-starved Peter Hale, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 14:35:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11315436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriscuitsandSoup/pseuds/TriscuitsandSoup
Summary: The first time someone told Peter they loved him was in a text message sent at 2:37 a.m. from Stiles Stilinski. He’d heard it before from his sister and Derek a few times at Christmas or holidays but no one reallysaidit to him. They said it towards him, a cursory, robotic gesture as easy as a ‘please’ or ‘thank you.’ There was no feeling behind it. Maybe from Derek it had been genuine at one point but that part of their lives was over. He hoped Derek still loved him, at least on some level, but he didn’t expect to hear it.





	Three Little Words

The first time someone told Peter they loved him was in a text message sent at 2:37 a.m. from Stiles Stilinski. He’d heard it before from his sister and Derek a few times at Christmas or holidays but no one really _said_ it to him. They said it towards him, a cursory, robotic gesture as easy as a ‘please’ or ‘thank you.’ There was no feeling behind it. Maybe from Derek it had been genuine at one point but that part of their lives was over. He hoped Derek still loved him, at least on some level, but he didn’t expect to hear it.

All of that was fine until he saw those three little words on his cell phone. It was sarcastic half-praise for killing the omega before it got into town. Standing there, claws bloody with his eyes fixated on the cell phone Peter felt a lurching in his heart. Through the screen, he felt a genuine affection that woke something deep within him that trembled and shook off layers of distrust and years of reclusion. considered tossing his phone to the side and pretending he’d never read the message but then Stiles, clever, stupid, knowing, nosey, Stiles would know.

_'I love you too,'_ Peter responded. He threw in an eye roll after letting his thumb linger over the ‘send’ button a couple seconds too long.

The three dots came back to indicate Stiles was typing and Peter felt his heart stutter. He wanted to shove Stiles. Find him and shove him. He felt like Derek.

_'Knew you couldn’t resist me.'_ Stiles said back. _'Are you okay?'_

Peter hated that more than he hated the ‘I love you.’ His heart lurched again.

He told Stiles he was fine and reminded him he was up past his bedtime.

Stiles sent an eye roll emoji of his own and from there the communication died. A part of Peter went with it. He was left once more by himself in the light of the moon just as he had been during his coma, alone with no one to talk too.

From there Peter became obsessed. It became his mission to prompt the phrase from Stiles whenever he thought he could get away with it. He learned what made him tick and what made his face light up so bright.

“I love you,” Stiles sighed a few weeks later when Peter plopped a large bucket of over buttered popcorn in his lap during movie night.

Erica gave him a look as if to say ‘where’s mine?’ but if she thought he would share with everyone then she would be waiting a long ass time.

Boyd looked away as if he was witnessing something private.

Derek didn’t seem to notice. He was too fixated on Isaac picking out a movie from the stack Stiles and Erica brought.

Peter didn’t care which one they picked. He hadn’t come to watch a movie he came to give Stiles popcorn and to hear those three little words gush from his mouth like a waterfall.

Hearing them was even better than reading, though his brain purred in satisfaction the words were transient and once they left Stiles lips they were gone again and quickly thereafter so was the relief that Peter felt.

“Enjoy your heart disease, sweetheart,” Peter said.

“Thank you, I will.” Stiles reached into the bucket and grabbed a fistful of popcorn that leaked butter between his fingers and scented his skin with salt. He shoved it all into his mouth at once and chewed with a satisfied grin.

Peter sat next to him on the sofa with his feet propped up on the coffee table. When they were alone in his house Stiles would usually sidle closer, not enough to constitute snuggling but enough that he could feel Stiles arm brush up against his own. Nothing ever came of it but that was fine, so long as Stiles said those three little words. 

Stiles didn’t shy away or look at him suspiciously like the others did. Their feelings weren’t without warrant, so perhaps Stiles was simply stupid. Whatever the reason, it made Peter feel normal and Peter liked how he felt when he felt normal.

He stuck around throughout the movie listening to Stiles and Erica banter and bicker like school children. He watched Isaac and Derek do their self-conscious dance of trying and failing to cuddle. There were too many gangly limbs at play and stiff body postures for it to actually work, nevertheless he enjoyed watching them try. They eventually settled for Isaac’s head resting on Derek’s chest and Derek’s arm wrapped around his waist.

Peter hoped silently that Stiles might fall asleep so he would lean against him but of course, stupid, stubborn, Stiles had to stay awake. He wasn’t still, of course, he moved around anxiously at every action sequence, he leaned forward when there was tension and he slouched back when it finally lapsed. Watching movies with Stiles was exhausting but in a good way.

Finally, the credits rolled. Erica untangled herself from Boyd’s lap, Isaac and Derek stretched and sat up and Stiles pawed around his empty popcorn bowl for a few last crumbles.

“Let me,” said Peter, holding out his hand for the bowl.

Stiles looked up. A small splotch of butter marked the corner of his mouth by his lip. “Thanks,” he said as he pulled his hand out and willingly offered it up. He flicked his tongue out over his fingertips.

“You are such a child,” Peter said. He sighed and rubbed the butter off Stiles’ cheek with his thumb.

Stiles pursed his lips and turned his head away like the petulant child he was.

When it was time to go Peter followed him at arm’s length to his car. That was how these meetups always seemed to end, with Peter trailing behind Stiles, keeping an eye on him and hoping he could hear those three little words again. 

“Need a ride?” Stiles asked.

“Hardly,” Peter scoffed. “I could run home faster than that thing could take me there.” 

“Hey, don’t insult my baby,” said Stiles as he patted the blue paint. “I love him more than anything else in the world.”

“Even me?” Peter said without thinking. His heart stuttered. 

Stiles' eyes widened. 

Peter’s tongue grew dry and thick in his mouth. That was it. Their mini-meetings would be over, Stiles would get in his jeep and drive away and those stupid words he’d come to cling on wouldn’t ever be spoken again. He was about to retract his statement when the usual grin returned to Stiles’ face.

“Maybe there’s one thing I love more than him,” he said with a wink. “Goodnight creepy wolf.”

“Goodnight,” said Peter.

As Stiles climbed in the jeep and put it in gear he leaned through the window to say, “I love you,” one final time.

“Love you too,” said Peter. With less assuredness than he’d ever had in his life, he stepped up to the window and leaned in.

It took Stiles a second to realize what he wanted but once he had his brown eyes glimmered and he leaned over the armrest to plant his lips against Peter. Their mouths lingered together for several long, chaste seconds.

As Stiles pulled away his dark eyes were half-lidded. “Sure you don’t need a ride home?” he asked.

“Well, I suppose getting stuck on the side of the road wouldn’t be so bad, so long as I’m with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it please leave a comment, thank you n.n
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at Triscuitsandsoup.tumblr.com


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